North Battleford to Stony Plain, day 8

 It was another bright and early start for us on our last westward bound leg of the trip. We has been the only boondocker in the parking lot overnight but now a few people were turning up to walk dogs or just exercise at the park on this beautiful day. Before joining the highway we headed to the Wal Mart shopping centre and gassed up and then joined highway 16 once again.

We crossed the Saskatchewan / Alberta in Lloydminster at 9.20am and travelled on to Vermillion where we celebrated with a Tim's coffee and doughnut.

We could hardly pass Vegreville without stopping in so we called into Kinsmen/Elk Park for some pictures at the lake and Pysanka.

We even managed to make it look like the trailer was still flying a Canadian flag as we did in Manitoba, albeit a bit smaller version.

After a while it was back in to the car and head off on this westward final final leg. We topped up with gas and headed for Stony Plain. Driving the highway along the northern edges of Edmonton was the busiest section of highway we'd encountered all the way. Regardless, we arrived at our Stony Plain destination incident free shortly after 2pm, YEAH!

We drove 431km this final day for a total of 3833km at an average speed of 73km/hr and 52 and a half hours of actual driving and around 700 litres of gas.

Time for a rest.

Moosomin Regional Park to North Battleford, day 7

 Having made such good progress yesterday we were excited that our westward journey now had a n end almost insight. Despite the late night last night we were up at 6 and after a leisurely breakfast and tear down we left the site at 7.45am.

We filled up with gas in the town of Moosomin itself before rejoining highway 16 west.

After about 3 hours we decided on a coffee break. Our GPS informed us there was a rest area not too far away so we kept our eyes peeled for that. We soon spotted it and pulled to the entrance right on the side of the highway only to find a barrier across the entrance and it was no place to be stopping for anything. We quickly pulled out again and another rest area search revealed there was another a little further west, just off the highway. We were becoming all too aware that once again our fuel gauge was getting down to about 60km of fuel left.

We took highway 2 (north) and continued north for several kilometres looking for the rest area which proved to be at the bottom of a small valley where the road wound downhill from both sides of the valley. This picture does not do the downhill aspect of the road justice!

The picture shows the road coming from the opposite direction from which we approached the rest area. The picture was taken to show the small river and in particular a couple of turtles on the rock in the centre of the picture. I believe they were Blandings turtles. I did not want to get too close as they'd likely disappear into the water.

We didn't need to get too close to realise this rest area didn't look to be too hopeful. The building, even from a distance, could be seen to be somewhat derelict and as we got to the entrance the barrier was once again chained and locked. Fortunately the entranceway was sufficiently large enough for us to just about pull in off the road and take our break which we were grateful even though traffic from both directions came downhill towards us, with traffic from our side of the having less visibility of us because of a bend in the road. Being a minor road the traffic was quite light. This little closed rest area was quite scenic and peaceful in the circumstances.

Having had a rest we set off again but since our GPS informed us it was more than 70km north-west (the way we were headed) to a gas station we decided not to take the risk and head back a few kilometres to Findlater where we'd seen a gas station on the other side of the highway. We were not happy when, after doubling back for gas, we discovered the gas station was 'temporarily' closed. Just up the road where we were going to rejoin the highway were a few bikers who were taking a break. We asked them about gas stations and they told us there was one less than 15km away in the town of Chamberlain that we were passing through anyway. I guess local knowledge beats GPS knowledge sometimes! Sure enough, we headed NW to Chamberlain and found the gas station even if it was quite busy but that should be expected if they are few and far between. Next to the gas station was this statue of an early pioneer and across the street is this typical grain elevator.

Having refuelled the car we travelled north-west again for a couple of hours before coming across a sign for a rest area that we thought would be OK for a lunch stop. We followed the picnic table signs only to be led to Blackstrap provincial Park where we had to pay an entry fee even though we just wanted an hours stop to eat some lunch. The side roads are just too narrow and have few if any spots suitable for turning around so we had to bite the bullet and pay our entry fee. At least tonight I was hoping that we could try our hand at our first boondocking spot. I had tentatively thought about going to a campground in Maidstone, SK, but that seemed a jus bit to far. I little research from the website www.ioverlander.com showed that we may be able to boondock at a civic park in North Battleford, SK. Arriving in North Battleford around 6pm we headed to McD's where we purchased some food then set out into the town's back streets in search of the park we planned to spend the night. It turned out o be an excellent park, a large, gravelled parking lot overlooking a sports field as well as lots of good quality parkland.

  

Today was another personal best at 724km! That does seem a little high as Google tells me the distance between the two is about 630km but maybe that's price of our gas and rest stop detours?